House to Home

There are home maintenance tasks out there that are total secrets! Did you know that? We all know that we need to clean out our gutters if we want them to function well and we need to change out our air filters for the same reason- proper function. But what about these secret tasks? Thankfully, the folks at realtor.com didn’t leave us in the dark. Here are some of the home maintenance chores we may have overlooked and why it’s beneficial to add them to the list of tasks!

Our corporate office, located in Frankfort, KY, has seen one of the wettest February’s on record. According to US Climate Data, the average precipitation is 3.07 inches for February but we have seen almost 10.5 inches of rain this past month, beating out the record of 9.84 inches established in 1884. Many near the Ohio River and other waterways are dealing with major flooding but for residents across the area, many are dealing with water in their basement.

Man! We are busy, as a society! I often feel like I don’t have time to take a breath and then I look at friends of mine and think, “seriously, where do they find the time to____?”. More often than not, the blank in that question is filled in with some sort of deep cleaning or home maintenance activity. But let’s be honest with one another, to be a good homeowner and to save us money and headaches in the future we should be performing preventative maintenance on our homes. When I used to work in hotels, we made sure that all of the guestrooms received preventative maintenance on a consistent basis to catch maintenance issues before they happened. If hotels do that for the complete strangers that stay with them, shouldn’t we for our families?

Last week we discussed how to clean your front-loading washing machine to make sure our clothes are as fresh as possible! I couldn’t help but feel that our task was half done; after all, the other half to the washer is the dryer. While cleaning out the dryer won’t help make your clothes any fresher it will assist in keeping it in tip-top shape, running efficiently and more importantly, won’t cause your home to burn down… it’s a win win! And to do this only takes a few minutes!

We invested in a front-loading washing machine about a year ago and while I love it, I really do love it, I’ve noticed an odd smell over the last month or so. Luckily my clothes still smell fresh but I do use dryer sheets and those scent boosting beads so who knows what they’d smell like if I didn’t… eww. I didn’t consider the need to wash a washing machine—after all, every time I use it, water and soap get all sloshed around in there. But as it turns out, these front-loaders tend to harbor mold and other unpleasant smells, according to an article on Popsugar. They go on to recommend cleaning the washing machine once a month.

Man! We are busy, as a society! I often feel like I don’t have time to take a breath and then I look at friends of mine and think, “seriously, where do they find the time to____?”. More often than not, the blank in that question is filled in with some sort of deep cleaning or home maintenance activity. But let’s be honest with one another, to be a good homeowner and to save us money and headaches in the future we should be performing preventative maintenance on our homes. When I used to work in hotels, we made sure that all of the guestrooms received preventative maintenance on a consistent basis to catch maintenance issues before they happened. If hotels do that for the complete strangers that stay with them, shouldn’t we for our families?

While a septic tank doesn’t affect all homeowners (many are on city sewers) there are a good number of people who do have to concern themselves with septic care. Septic tanks exist below the surface of the ground so you don’t often see the small signs that indicate a potential problem. Additionally, if a septic tank fails, it is not just you that is affected but also your neighbors.

Brrr… this weather is a cold one and we aren’t seeing signs of it getting warmer anytime soon! What tips exist out there to help us in these extreme temperatures? I’m so glad you asked! I stumbled upon a wonderful set of 8 tips to get us through these icy days without spending all our money on staying warm. I’ve listed them below but for more information check out the link at the end of this post!

You can totally disregard the information below if you have $18,000.00 laying around that you are hoping to get rid of. You see that is the average claim for damage from a frozen pipe reported by the Hartford Insurance Co. So, if you are smart (and I know you are) you’ll take steps to keep your pipes from freezing!

Step #1

If some of your pipes are not going to be in use like sprinkler lines, garden hose or pool—you will want to get the water out of those pipes. Shut off the water valves then open up the spigots letting any remaining water drip out.